It’s Wednesday and the weekend is starting to come into sight – so hang on!

Today several issues in the news caught my attention like Jets and Missiles, Stolen Valor, Compromise, the Panetta-Burns Plan, and the Purge. There’s a lot more so read on!

Jets and Missiles:

According to a press release posted on Senator Jon Tester’s website, Tester and Senator Max Baucus “are celebrating two victories for Great Falls: keeping the Montana Air National Guard’s F-15s in the Electric City and securing Malmstrom Air Force Base’s nuclear missiles.”

This is good news, although it is not a done deal. The Senate defense bill will need to be reconciled with the House defense bill and then signed by the President.

It sure would be nice if Tester, Baucus, and/or Representative-elect Steve Daines secured a seat on a defense or military committee for the upcoming 113th Congress. They would be in a stronger position to fight for Montana’s military and to fight for new missions.

Stolen Valor Act of 2012:

Readers may remember that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act of 2006 in June. Two justices suggested that Congress rewrite the law “in a more narrow form.” They did.

The Senate passed the revised version of the bill on Monday as an amendment to the Defense bill. The House passed their version earlier this year. Of course, these are different versions and will have to be reconciled in a conference committee.

This is good news! We sure don’t need people pretending to be heroes and, if they are, they deserve to be punished.

The Word is Compromise:

According to a new poll from Gallup, “Sixty-two percent of Americans would like to see federal government leaders compromise on an agreement to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff’ budget measures set to go into effect next month.”

The breakdown by political party showed that 71% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans prefer compromise.

Republicans…

Panetta-Burns Plan:

Call it pollster humor, but according to a story posted on the Business Insider website, Public Policy Polling conducted a poll about the Simpson-Bowles plan to reduce the national deficit in comparison to the Panetta-Burns plan which is “based on a mythical combination of Leon Panetta, the current Secretary of Defense and former chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, and Conrad Burns, a former Republican Senator from Montana.”

According to the Business Insider, “25 percent of respondents offered an opinion on it (Panetta-Burns). Eight percent said they view it favorably, while 17 percent said they do not have a favorable opinion of the ‘plan.’”

Some of the comments with the Twitter hashtag #PanettaBurns are pretty funny…

The Purge:

According to Politico, “House Speaker John Boehner is under fierce attack from conservatives in the blogosphere and on Twitter over his ‘purge’ of several conservatives from top congressional committees, as well as for his offer to fend off the fiscal cliff.”

Bada bing, bada boom…Maybe this is a first step for the Republicans to reduce the power of the far-right wackos who cost them several seats during the past election. 

Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord